Moscow Metro to Fine Manufacturers for Delays

The Moscow metro will fine train manufacturers for serious wagon malfunctions in an effort to improve the quality of service offered to the city's commuters, who have had to put up with increasingly frequent delays in recent times.

Under the terms of a new contract, train builders will be made responsible for the upkeep of wagons they sell the city over the course of their entire operational life span, the city's transport development department said Thursday in a statement on its website.

Manufacturers will also be fined at least 450,000 rubles ($12,000) each time a delay is caused by a wagon-related fault.

"The penalties will be so severe that the manufacturer will have a vested interest in making sure their product works properly," said Deputy Mayor Maxim Liksutov, who is responsible for transport in Moscow.

Gamid Bulatov, the department's deputy head, said that in late-April or early-May the city will announce a tender for the supply of 2,800 wagons to the Moscow metro system, consisting of two deliveries of 1,400 cars each. The estimated value of the contract is about 500 billion rubles, and deliveries must begin in 2016.